robert-turner-1
Joined Aug 2004
Welcome to the new profile
We're still working on updating some profile features. To see the badges, ratings breakdowns, and polls for this profile, please go to the previous version.
Reviews14
robert-turner-1's rating
"Ali" is a decidedly average biopic which fails to do justice to a unique and often controversial sporting figure.
Given that the years 1964 - 1974 were a monumental period of strife and upheaval in most Americans' lives - never mind someone like Mohammed Ali, the dramatisation of these events is a curiously dull and uninspiring affair.
Characters are undeveloped; dialogue is flabby and inconsequential. For unnecessarily large portions of this movie, "Ali" resembles a pretentious and self indulgent pop video. In fact you could quite easily leave the room, return twenty minutes later, and discover that nothing of any great consequence has happened.
Considering that this movie is almost three hours long, the audience's rapidly thinning patience is occasionally rewarded. The fight sequences (notably the legendary bouts with Sonny Liston) are tense and wonderfully choreographed. Will Smith also delivers an energetic and convincing character portrayal- which is just as well because he looks nothing like him.
In short, a disappointing and over-hyped film. The definitive story of this remarkable human being remains to be written.
Given that the years 1964 - 1974 were a monumental period of strife and upheaval in most Americans' lives - never mind someone like Mohammed Ali, the dramatisation of these events is a curiously dull and uninspiring affair.
Characters are undeveloped; dialogue is flabby and inconsequential. For unnecessarily large portions of this movie, "Ali" resembles a pretentious and self indulgent pop video. In fact you could quite easily leave the room, return twenty minutes later, and discover that nothing of any great consequence has happened.
Considering that this movie is almost three hours long, the audience's rapidly thinning patience is occasionally rewarded. The fight sequences (notably the legendary bouts with Sonny Liston) are tense and wonderfully choreographed. Will Smith also delivers an energetic and convincing character portrayal- which is just as well because he looks nothing like him.
In short, a disappointing and over-hyped film. The definitive story of this remarkable human being remains to be written.
"Sex Lives of the Potato Men" was the movie, that on it's release, had the chattering classes spluttering into their cappuccinos with indignation that the Film Council (of all people!) could commission, let alone, subsidise such a seedy and prurient production as this.
OK, SLOTPM is no "Battleship Potemkin" - and doesn't pretend to be. It is, however, a bawdy, unpretentious and genuinely funny slice of social realism. Which exceeded all possible expectations at the Box Office; and if anything, highlighted the ever widening gulf between what the critics perceive as "artistic endeavour" and what us lesser mortals view as disposable entertainment.
Curiously enough, given it's notoriety, SLOTPM has slightly less nudity than your average "Carry On" movie. Everything is implied, or "performed" off camera. Perhaps, the censors decided that the unedifying spectacle of Johnny Vegas sweating profusely in a string vest was justification enough to warrant issuing this film with an "18" Certificate.
OK, SLOTPM is no "Battleship Potemkin" - and doesn't pretend to be. It is, however, a bawdy, unpretentious and genuinely funny slice of social realism. Which exceeded all possible expectations at the Box Office; and if anything, highlighted the ever widening gulf between what the critics perceive as "artistic endeavour" and what us lesser mortals view as disposable entertainment.
Curiously enough, given it's notoriety, SLOTPM has slightly less nudity than your average "Carry On" movie. Everything is implied, or "performed" off camera. Perhaps, the censors decided that the unedifying spectacle of Johnny Vegas sweating profusely in a string vest was justification enough to warrant issuing this film with an "18" Certificate.
The "Football Factory" is a low budget, low brow independent British movie that sunk without trace at the cinema and has now reinvented itself as a heavily promoted straight-to-video/DVD release.
It is not difficult to see why.
I was puzzled first of all by anyone wanting to make a contemporary film about a tired social issue that is about as relevant to life in 21st Century Britain today as flared trousers, spangles and the Bay City Rollers.
Nevertheless, British film makers in the past have produced a clutch of outstanding movies dealing with the self same subject matter such as "ID" and "The Firm", so I was prepared to give the "Football Factory" the benefit of the doubt.
I wish now that I hadn't bothered.
One of the most irritating aspects of this movie is it's total lack of originality. The "Football Factory", perhaps in a desperate bid to garner some sort of "cult credibility" with it's audience, shamelessly plagiarises innovations from virtually every successful British film of the last decade: "Gangster No1", "Trainspotting", Lock Stock" etc etc. The comparisons, unfortunately, end there.
If you want to watch a large group of foul mouthed, baseball cap wearing, lame brained little Englanders engaging in acts of pointless violence, steer clear of this celluloid calamity and go visit any UK town centre at the weekend instead. The acting will probably be a bit more believable too!
It is not difficult to see why.
I was puzzled first of all by anyone wanting to make a contemporary film about a tired social issue that is about as relevant to life in 21st Century Britain today as flared trousers, spangles and the Bay City Rollers.
Nevertheless, British film makers in the past have produced a clutch of outstanding movies dealing with the self same subject matter such as "ID" and "The Firm", so I was prepared to give the "Football Factory" the benefit of the doubt.
I wish now that I hadn't bothered.
One of the most irritating aspects of this movie is it's total lack of originality. The "Football Factory", perhaps in a desperate bid to garner some sort of "cult credibility" with it's audience, shamelessly plagiarises innovations from virtually every successful British film of the last decade: "Gangster No1", "Trainspotting", Lock Stock" etc etc. The comparisons, unfortunately, end there.
If you want to watch a large group of foul mouthed, baseball cap wearing, lame brained little Englanders engaging in acts of pointless violence, steer clear of this celluloid calamity and go visit any UK town centre at the weekend instead. The acting will probably be a bit more believable too!